Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. All I own is the storyline, Hashi and the first names of the Fuuma clan members I mention.
10. Target in Otokagure
The forest was calm until a light breeze picked up, blowing dead leaves across the ground and gently rustle the trees around. It blew through wild blonde hair that belonged to a cloaked man sitting on a rather large rock with his left knee pointed upward with his foot flat on the rock. His left arm was hanging over his knee as his right palm was flat against the boulder while his eyes were closed. Next to him stood another cloaked man with his sword tightly strapped to his back while he looked out to what the hill they were both on was overlooking. Rice Country. Home of Otokagure no Sato (Hidden Sound Village).
"Rice Country, eh?" spoke the man who was standing.
The blonde just nodded while he finally opened his eyes and decided to speak, "We wait in this country for Kabuto to show up and when he does, we kill him."
"What's so important about this Kabuto that Leader-sama wants him dead?"
The blonde continued to stare out while he voiced his answer, "Kabuto was Orochimaru's right hand man. During the Suna (Sand)-Oto (Sound)/Konoha War, after the Sandaime and my father killed Orochimaru, Kabuto absorbed some of Orochimaru to gain power, it could possibly take over him."
"I still don't see what's important about him," the other replied.
"Acording to Itachi-san, Orochimaru was in the Akatsuki but defected after a failed attempt in taking over Itachi-san's body. Orochimaru was set on destroying the Akatsuki and Konoha, therefore Leader-sama wanted to take out Orochimaru. Kabuto has some of Orochimaru's power so we need to kill him before he attempts an attack on our organization."
"It makes sense now." The man stayed quiet for a while and spoke again, "So Naruto, did Itachi-san really say all that to you?"
The blonde nodded and then stood up from where he was sitting, "Come on Hashi, let's enter the village and wait."
Hashi began to walk with Naruto following right after heading for the main village of Rice Country.
A white-haired male started looking through a peephole in the bath house and tried to stifle perverted laughter as he scribbled in his notebook. Research is what he called it but it was really just spying on naked women for a smut book entitled 'Icha Icha Paradise (Come Come Paradise). Suddenly the white-haired male was punched in the face with so much force, he found himself one-thousand meters away from the bath house he was spying at.
"You perverted old geezer!" screamed a female voice.
"Oh shit," the white-haired male said recognizing the voice.
"What the hell do you think you're doing Jiraiya?!" said a female with long dirty blonde hair split into two long pony tails wearing a green jacket, grey shirt and black Capri pants. Her brown eyes showed how angry and disgusted she was.
"Tsunade, it's not what you think!" Jiraiya said making his desperate pleas.
"It was what I think it was!" she yelled again.
Jiraiya got up and dusted himself off. "It's time I left anyway, Minato asked me to look for someone so I'll see you around."
Tsunade's anger immediately disappeared as the subject changed and she knew just who he was talking about. "He asked you to look for Naruto, didn't he?"
"Yeah. Apparently Minato's boy joined up with the wrong crowed," replied the Gama (Toad) Sannin.
"What do you mean?" asked the Slug Sannin
"Minato said Naruto has joined the Akatsuki."
"You're lying," Tsunade said.
"According to Minato, Kakashi and his team went on a mission to rescue Gaara after he was kidnapped by the Akatsuki; one of the ones involved was Naruto."
"The short time I've known him, things seemed a bit rough between Naruto and Minato but I never thought he'd join up with the Akatsuki," said Tsunade.
"Well hopefully I can talk some sense into the kid and bring him back for Minato's sake. He's been so depressed since Naruto's defection." said the old pervert. Tsunade nodded in agreement and the two stayed silent for a while, saddened by th enews. Jiraiya finally snapped out of his trace and turned.
"Well I got a kid to bring back, see you when I see you." Soon the Sannin was out of sight.
Yamato, Sakura and Sasuke entered the village just inside Rice Country. The place was pretty lively, people walking about, shops selling goods at reasonable prices. They didn't look one bit scared of Kabuto returning.
"Ah, you must be the ninja Konoha sent to help keep Kabuto at bay if he plans to try and take back Otokagure (Hidden Sound)," said a powerful voice. The Konoha ninja looked toward the direction the voice came from and found a man in about his early thirties with short black hair and black goatee. He was wearing a blue kimono with the Fuuma Clan symbol on the back.
"So you're the leader then, correct?" asked Yamato.
"Hai, my name is Fuuma Mochi, leader of the Fuuma Clan and Otokagure."
"Let us introduce ourselves Mochi-sama, I'm Yamato, Jounin in charge of this three man cell."
"I'm Haruno Sakura, the team's medic-nin," the pink-haired kunoichi said bowing.
"Uchiha Sasuke," the raven-haired boy said rather rudely.
"Nice to meet you all. Come to the estate, you'll be shown your rooms," Mochi said motioning them to follow.
The Konoha-nin followed the Fuuma leader to a massive estate just on the edge of the village. It's size actually impressed the withdrawn Uchiha. Sakura couldn't hardly believe her eyes on how big it was while Yamato didn't show any time of emotion toward the size of the mansion.
"I see you two are taken by how big my home is," said the Fuuma leader.
Sakura nodded while Sasuke barely made a sound. The three ninja followed Mochi inside the massive home. As soon as they entered a large staircase awaited them. The staircase led to more stairs, one going off toward the left side of the mansion and the other led to the right side. Mochi continued onward u p the right side staircase into a massive hallway with about ten doors on each side of the hallway.
"This wing of the mansion is reserved for guests, the first three rooms have been readied for you. Whenever you're ready to discuss business, meet me in the conference hall. It's downstairs to the right," said Mochi pointing to the first door on the right side of the hall. The three ninja nodded and Mochi headed back downstairs. Yamato picked the first room and Sasuke chose the second. Sakura opened the door to the third room and was amazed how big the bed was.
'Damn, that bed can fit a least eight people on it,' she mentally remarked. The room had the bare essentials: the large bed, the nightstand with a lamp and a dresser with a large mirror with a designed gold frame. Sakura knew she was in heaven as soon as she saw that mirror.
After twenty minutes of getting settled in their rooms in the Fuuma mansion, the three ninja finally made their way to the conference room where Mochi and two other people were waiting.
"Oh hello, glad you could finally come see us," joked the Fuuma leader. The two other people in the room chuckled a bit and bowed to the Konoha ninja.
"Let me introduce you to my advisers, this is Fuuma Kakushi," Mochi began pointing to a man on the right who had short brown hair and was wearing battle armor underneath a white trench coat and a black headband around his head with a metal plate that had a music note, representing he was an Otokagure ninja. Mochi then pointed to the male to his left with long black hair tied back with his bangs pushed behind his ears wearing the same type of battle armor underneath an open black and white kimono. He had two small katana strapped to his back, "And this is Fuuma Kitsu."
The two bowed again with the Konoha-nin bowing back.
"Alright, what exactly is the situation?" asked Yamato.
"Well there's been reports that Yakushi Kabuto has been spotted around Rice Country with four people following him too."
"Reports?" questioned the ANBU turned team leader, "You mean there's no real proof?"
"Unfortunately no there is not, but we wanted to be safe than sorry. Rice Country along with the Fuuma Clan do not want that tyrant's right hand man back here," said Mochi.
"When you say tyrant, you mean Orochimaru, right?" asked Yamato.
Mochi nodded, "Ever since Orochimaru disappeared along with Kabuto, Rice Country returned to peace and prosperity."
Sasuke raised an eyebrow then actually spoke, "You don't know?"
"What do you mean?" asked Mochi.
"Orochimaru was killed two and half years ago, that's why Kabuto disappeared too," replied the Uchiha.
"Well that's good news then. We don't have to worry about that bastard freak of nature returning but we still want Kabuto out of the picture too," answered Mochi.
"Very well, we'll patrol and if we find Kabut and these four others, we'll take them out," Yamato said. Mochi bowed and the Konoha-nin exited the conference room and walked outside the mansion. Yamato then turned to Sakura and Sasuke.
"We still have some daylight left, I want you two to scout on your own. If you find Kabuto in this village then find me and we'll take him out as a team, got it?" ordered Yamato. The two nodded and all three leapt off into different directions.
Naruto and Hashi were sitting in a small outdoor café where they sipped on tea cups. It had been an hour since they entered the village to wait. They watched people passing by on the sidewalk near the café, most were wearing Oto forehead protectors. It seemed weird to Naruto since Oto used to be under Orochimaru but he was here for a reason and it wasn't to remember the old days, it was to find Kabuto and eliminate him before he became a threat to the Akatsuki. This was going to be a long boring task.
"Alright, I'm going to go scout, I assume you'll stay here." 'Since I'm the one that does all the work,' said Hashi while he finished the rest of the sentence in his mind.
"Fair enough," replied Naruto. In fact, Naruto was just about to get up and scout but if Hashi wanted to do it, then that was fine by Naruto. Either way, they needed to find Kabuto quickly, eliminate him and remove any trace of his existence before anyone got suspicious of the two.
Hashi disappeared in the horizon while Naruto continued to sip his tea calmly.
Sakura walked through the streets looking around to see if she could spot Kabuto. It was very unlikely he would be in the village itself but you never know. He did manage to infiltrate Konoha as a spy before that invasion after all so he'd be able to do it again, especially since this was his old village.
Hashi roof-hopped through the village until he spotted something in the streets, a raven-haired boy with the Konoha insignia on his forehad.
'Shit, Konoha's here too. I better go back and tell Naruto.'
Sakura continued her treck through the village, trying not to be noticed so she'd have a better chance at spotting the grey-haired weirdo here. She turned the corner and stopped dead in her tracks at the sight of wild blonde hair and the black cloak with the red clouds across it sitting in a café a little ways up the street.
'It's Naruto, that means the Akatsuki are here too! I have to tell Yamato-teichou.'
Sakura turned to find Yamato when her emerald eyes met with distant sapphire eyes. Naruto was standing before her. Just how the hell did he do that? She wanted to question it but the words got stuck in her throat before they even found their way to her tongue. He stood their, staring at her with his almost dead eyes. Her eyes showed her fear, surprise and sadness. Tears were threatening to form in her eyes and she tried desperately to fight them off. There was no way in hell she was going to cry today, no way in hell. Then the dead blue eyes of Naruto softened which surprised her.
"Sakura-chan." he whispered. Her eyes widened, back in the Gaara Rescue mission, he just said her name without a care but here with just him and her, he said with care and even added the 'chan' suffix which he had left out with their bitter reunion.
"What are you doing here?" he questioned her. Tears formed and began falling out of her eyes. She looked up at him with those sad, crying eyes and said that one three letter word.
"Why?"
Naruto looked around to see if she was alone or any sign of Hashi. He then turned back to her.
"What I'm about to tell you is an S-Class Secret, only four other people know this so promise me that you won't tell a single soul about what I'm about to say, ok?" whispered Naruto. She nodded and he led her to a secure location and began to talk.
The sun was getting low and the three Konoha-nin met back up in front of the mansion all saying they didn't find anything. Sakura, who didn't show any emotion on her face but she was relieved now than ever and didn't say another word and walked into her room.
Naruto continued to walk down the street when finally Hashi appeared before him.
"There you are you son of a bitch, I've been looking all over this damn town for you."
Naruto just stared at him with an unreadable look. "So?"
"I spotted a Konoha ninja here," Hashi relayed the information to his blonde partner.
"Not surprising," replied Naruto, seemingly not caring.
"What do we do?" asked Hashi who was screaming at himself mentally. 'Look at me! Asking him what to do like he's my boss, I'm fucking older than him!'
"Let it be, we're not here to fight Konoha, we're here to find Kabuto and eliminate him," the blonde said while he continued to walk while Hashi stayed put.
"Are you sure about that? What if they find us here and attack?" asked Hashi, he just wanted to kill someone with his sword, that's all it really was.
"We retreat, we're not here to get ourselves killed," replied Naruto who was now getting annoyed with Hashi's questions.
Hashi wanted to kill Naruto to relieve the frustration the blonde was causing him, of course that would be viewed as a betrayal of the Akatsuki and thus be killed as well so he backed off, but it still pissed him off nonetheless. Meanwhile, in the shadows of the forest overlooking Otogakure, the moonlight shined off glasses of a grey-haired ninja with a smirk on his face watching and waiting. Four other dark silhouettes of three males and a female appeared behind the grey-haired man.
"Soon we'll be ready to take back Otokagure from the Fuuma clan and restore it to the way that Orochimaru-sama had it."
The other four chuckled bitterly and all five then disappeared into the night.
Well I finally got around to updating, sorry it took so long. I just got wrapped up in other things. Now I know where I want to take this arc of the story. Hopefully I will update more often then I have been. I thought my own writer's block was over when I rewrote chapter 9 but I guess it wasn't. So with having writer's block and other stuff I gotten wrapped up in I didn't have time to update. Well now I'm back I hope, if I don't get busy again.